22. How many enterprises use training to support technological innovation?

Education and training is an important policy lever for achieving the Europe 2020 objectives.

Targeted smart growth, in particular, relies on knowledge and innovation in enterprises and VET is essential to promote and support it. The indicator below is defined as the number of enterprises which have engaged in technological innovation and which have provided training to their staff to support such innovation. This number is expressed as a percentage of all companies engaged in technological innovation. The data refer only to enterprises in core innovation sectors. The EU averages are estimated using available country data.

Key points

Based on data for 2014, on average 44.8% of enterprises in the EU that were engaged in technological innovation provided supportive training. In 12 out of the 24 EU Member States for which the 2014 data are available, this share was higher than 40%. Figures were highest in Cyprus (67.0%) and Luxembourg (60.5%) and lowest in Sweden, Malta, Spain, and Romania (all below 30% in 2014).

Among the non-EU countries for which data are available, innovative enterprises provided more supportive training in Norway (at 60.0 % in 2014) and Iceland (at 49.0) than in the EU as a whole; Turkey (at 43.0% in 2014) was slightly below the EU average in this respect.